New Zealand - Day 21 Christchurch

We spent our last full day (and our New Year's Eve) in Christchurch. I had read about the severe damage of the 2011 earthquake. A lot of things of places of interest are still closed. However, this was part of what I loved about Christchurch. It is also a city where people live. And these people are doing everything they can to re-build their city.

I really enjoyed checking out the creative, temporary solutions business owners came up with to keep their business open. For example, Re: START mall has stores and restaurants housed in large shipping containers. The bright colored containers, plenty of people milling around, and a great selection of stores made for a perfect afternoon. The General Store had amazing, unique gifts and souvenirs (not cheap airport gift shop kind of stuff) to bring home to friends and family (and of course I got a couple of things for us). Another example is the outdoor bar, Smash Palace, with it's bar in an old bus and cute seating set up all around the bus. Loved it!

 The shipping container mall, Re:Start, backs up to chain link fences, blocking people from going into the neighborhoods that are still devastated by the earthquake. We saw plenty of rubble, broken windows, and many of the roads were still very damaged. 

Smash Palace

Steeple to the church must have fallen off!

We stayed at The George right across the street from Hagley Park. It was a great treat for New Years Eve. When we arrived, they sent champagne and brownies to our room. The room was a spacious suite with a huge bathroom with a jetted tub and a separate shower. My favorite little perk was coming back to our room to find our bed folded down, robes laid out, and a little stuffed bear named George that we got to take home! 

Our New Year's Eve was pretty mellow considering how tired we were from 21 days of traveling and adventuring. However, it was nice to get cleaned up and dressed up and go out on the town for awhile. We had dinner at the 50 Bistro right in the hotel, and then out to Smash Palace for drinks.

The following morning, we took a beautiful run around Hagley Park. I am sure there are other neighborhoods worth exploring in Christchurch, but I feel like a day was a good amount of time to spend there. The bottom line is there is so much to explore in New Zealand and although we saw a ton, there is so much we didn't get to see. Our next trip would need to include more places on the North Island and Kaikoura, Mt. Cooke, and the Catlins on the South Island. I also would've liked to spend more time in certain places, like Wanaka, Queenstown, Abel Tasman, and Nelson Lakes. Allyson and I talk about spending a year in New Zealand after she finishes grad school. That's only a year from now, so I guess we'll see. Otherwise, we will definitely get back there after we check a few more places off our bucket list. 

New Zealand...you blew my mind. I planned this trip for over a year and got myself so excited that I was worried you wouldn't live up to my expectations. You exceeded them. What you don't get from the guidebooks is every road you drive on feels like you are in the most beautiful place in the world. If it were up to me, we would have stopped the campervan at every turn on every road to take a picture. Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous quote reads "Life is a journey, not a destination." In New Zealand, life is both the journey and the destination and every moment in between. Your people are friendly. Your fish and chips are out of this world! And I'm hooked on your Sauvignon Blanc. Thank you for the most amazing honeymoon two ladies could ever have dreamed of.

From the car.... 

Sedona

I was in Phoenix for a conference in February, and decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. My conference was Wednesday through Friday, so my mom and Allyson flew in Friday night and we decided to head up to Sedona first thing Saturday morning. I'd been here once before, but that was almost 20 years ago. All I can say is, what a tremendous place! Could have stayed much longer to enjoy all the great hiking, spas, restaurants, and generally positive energy!

You won't find the Saguaro cactus in Sedona. But they are all over in Phoenix. Interesting fact: it can take up to 75 years for a Saguaro cactus to grow one arm. 

The drive up to Sedona is an easy one from Phoenix. It takes about 2 hours and it's a straight shot. My favorite part of the drive is when you get off 17 and head towards Sedona on Hwy 179 or the Red Rock Scenic Byway. It's amazing how quickly you come upon the red rocks scenery. And it's so big and beautiful!

We got to Sedona around lunch time and ate lunch outside at Taos Cantina. The food was good and it was nice (although a little cold, they had heaters) to sit outside in the sun. Then we headed a few miles back down Hwy 179 to the Cathedral Rocks trailhead. The trailhead can be found easily on Back O Beyond Road and is less than 15 minutes from "downtown" Sedona. This hike is short (1.5 miles out and back) but super steep and requires a lot of scrambling. My mom went some of the way with us and then opted for just enjoying the energy (no doubt from the vortex near by!) and views.

Look carefully and you can see a guy on a mountain bike on the ridge. Lots of great mountain biking out here if that's your thing.

Cathedral Rocks

After Cathedral Rocks, we had appointments for massages at Sedona Rogue Hotel and Spa. This was a really nice way to spend the late afternoon. After massages we stuck around in the lounge and then used the private jacuzzi surrounded by bamboo. Perfectly relaxing. After the massages, we decided to have a casual dinner in the hotel so we stopped at the Safeway and got together food and wine for the night.

Our hotel was wonderful and what a deal! We stayed at Orchards Inn, which is right in Uptown with incredible views of the mountains. So you are walking distance to tons of restaurants and shops, but you also have just incredible views of the sunrise. There's a great little pool and jacuzzi which no one was using (fair enough...it actually started snowing while we were using the jacuzzi). The room was nice and it was literally under $125 a night. You can't go wrong with this hotel!

Sunrise from hotel balcony

The next morning was brutally cold (in the 20s) but nice and sunny, so we headed out for another hike. Our friends, Kayla and Michael, had recently gotten engaged at a place called Devil's Bridge so we decided to see what this natural bridge was all about. So glad we did! We got to the trailhead and it was blocked off, but there was a sign directing us to an alternative trailhead. We found our way to the Chuck Wagon trailhead by taking Dry Creek Road and turning right on Long Canyon Road. The trailhead was about 0.3 miles down that road on the right hand side. The best thing about this hike is you have great views for the entire hike. It's another hike that requires some scrambling (less so than Cathedral Rocks) so it isn't just a wander down an easy trail. 

I'm not going to outline the trails you need to take because the signage is really good. Basically, follow the signs to Devil's Bridge! 

It had snowed a few days before we got to Sedona, and there was some snow remaining. It made getting out on to the bridge a little terrifying but Allyson and I made it out there by sticking close to the side and using our hands. 

Devil's Bridge

Not that warm out on Devil's Bridge

After our hike, we went back to the hotel and warmed up in the jacuzzi and took showers before heading down to Tlaquepaque Shopping Center and Oak Creek Brewery for some shopping and dinner. Tlaquepaque is a really beautiful, upscale shopping center with art galleries and other shops. The brewery was recommended to us by several people, so we figured it was a must do.

Moonrise from our balcony

We headed back down to Phoenix on Monday morning, but first stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross. We were told by the receptionist at our hotel that the chapel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but it was actually designed by one of his students. Anyway, pretty cool chapel. Fits right in with the scenery around it. I do wish that the ridiculously huge mansion with the waterfalls right below the chapel wasn't there. It takes away from the simplicity of the chapel and the beauty all around it.

See huge mansion in lower right corner of picture. 

We stopped for a late breakfast in the Village of Oak Creek at Red Rock Cafe. Totally delicious and a good plan to stop there, because there is very little between here and Phoenix (not to mention at least our terminal at the Phoenix Airport had zero good options for food!)

Really enjoyed our mini-vacation and hope we make it back to Sedona soon. It got me excited for our adventures in Santa Fe, NM later this summer for Allyson's clinical rotation.